The Modern Millennial

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

It's no secret; the American job market is awful, and the Millennial job market is even worse. So today, when I was sent a job posting for a "PR Account Coordinator" I decided to probe the hiring manager who sent it to me for more information.

The company's post said the job required a minimum 2 years experience in Marketing and PR, a Bachelor's Degree in Communications, and a "rolodex" of press contacts. Despite not having much interest in a company that still uses rolodexes, I decided to keep probing the hiring manager anyway. His response wasn't surprising as it wasn't the first time I've had this happen...

Monday, September 30, 2013

By now, smart businesses realize the Millennial generation
isn’t just a bunch of hipsters with smart phones taking selfies but rather a generation
of consumers 86 million strong— that’s 7% more than baby boomers—and they’re
ready to spend money.

In fact, businesses that don’t start tailoring their
marketing to Millennials soon are missing out on a major consumer opportunity from
a generation with an expected
$2.45 trillion annual spending power by 2015; and that figure will surpass
boomers’ spending by 2018. The bottom line: Businesses must connect with millennial
consumers now because these young adults are the major consumer group of the
present and future.

It’s easy for companies to get lost in a world where the
term “social media marketing” is used loosely and the major strategy behind
marketing to Millennials is the idea of making something “go viral.” If you
want to win big with Gen Y, then you need to change your marketing ideas all
together. Here is what you need to keep in mind when targeting a Millennial,
from the perspective of a Millennial:

Monday, September 23, 2013

I am a Millennial. I have been labeled as having delusions
of grandeur, a tendency for being increasingly narcissistic and confidence in
abilities I do not yet possess. It has been said that I am part of a generation that thinks we are “special” and therefore unable
to be happy with the career opportunities we can attain.

As a member of this so-called
entitled and whiny generation,
I’d like to address this idea with a simple answer: We are.

But we did
not develop these traits without the assistance of the generations who forged
the path before us, laying down
the groundwork for the development of us
Gen Yers. It was simple. We were
told to stay in school, we did.
To get our high school diploma, we
did. To graduate from college, we
did. We were engrained with the notion that the key to financial security and success was education and hard work. So
we developed dreams, and we followed them.

The problem is, the country wasn’t actually ready for an
entire generation to actually do what was asked of them. No longer was a
college education and hard work the ticket to success; and now, rightfully, my Millennial Generation is… unemployed
and frustrated.

I have had a front-row
seat to this reality facing my
generation, so I thought I’d lay out the numbers underlying this frustration. Let’s start with a doozy...

The Author: Ryan Donegan

Ryan is an experienced marketing professional with a special interest in the Millennial generation. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies and start-ups to create digital marketing and content strategies aimed at getting the attention of the 86 million Millennials in the United States. Learn more at www.RyanDonegan.com